The standards and protocols of Internet protocol (IP) multimedia subsystem (IMS) networks and next generation networks (NGNs) are defined in a number of documents and technical specifications, such as in 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specifications TS 21.905, TS 23.002, TS 23.218, TS 23.228, TS 23.401, and TS 23.894, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
One challenge faced by telecommunications networks is that media streams, whether they be audio streams, such as voice data for a telephone call or digitally encoded music or tonal data for fax calls or dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF)-related relays, video streams, such as digitally encoded video, or other types of media, may be in a variety of formats. For example, there are a variety of encoder/decoder, or codec, standards for digitally encoded voice, fax, dial tones or other data. These codecs may encode and optionally compress data using different methods or techniques. Examples of popular voice codes include ITU-T G.711, ITU-T G.726 (ADPCM), and 3GPP GSM adaptive multi-rate (AMR). Audio and tonal codecs include MPEG-1 Layer 3 (MP3), free lossless audio codec (FLAG), fax-related codecs, such as T.38 fax relay, and DTMF relay (e.g., as described in RFC 2833). Video codecs include MPEG-4 Part 2, H.264, and others. In addition, image or video data may have a particular image size or screen size, resolution, number of colors, and other characteristics.
In order for communication to occur between two devices (e.g., two cell phones, a fax machine and a computer, etc.) using different codecs from the other, for example, the telecommunications network must provide some form of transcoding to convert a media stream from one codec to another codec. This transcoding operation, along with other media related functions such as media manipulation (e.g. voice stream mixing) and playing of tones (e.g., using a DTMF relay) and announcements, may be performed by a media-adaptation resource, which may be implemented in hardware, software, or both, at a multimedia resource function processor (MRFP).
Telecommunications networks typically have multiple MRFPs. Each MRFP typically has one or more media-adaptation resources. For example, MRFPs (e.g., media servers) may have shelves with a number of voice cards and/or digital signaling processors (DSPs), each card containing one or more media-adaptation resources.
Conventionally, MRFPs are tightly coupled to an MRFC. That is, a single MRFC typically controls resources of a plurality of MRFPs. When requests for resources are sent to a controlling MRFC, the MRFC determines appropriate MRFPs and requests available resources from the MRFPs. While a tightly coupled controller-processor system may be useful for monitoring permanent or semi-permanent resources, such as resources in a media gateway tied to physical terminations in a circuit network, a tight coupling between MRFCs and MRFPs provides poor scalability and is inefficient in utilizing MRFPs' resources.
Thus, there exists a need for systems, methods, and computer readable media for loose coupling of MRFCs and MRFPs.